Hi everyone, this is a new short story series set during and after SRIV. I've written the series in a style of a tv show like Sherlock and Futurama; the first few chapters that are set before SRIV ends are meant to build up the characters we know and love, and then the future chapters, or what I'm calling them as episodes, are meant to parody popular tv shows, movies and books. If there are any ideas, pairings or general quirms you'd like to see and have fixed in this story, leave a review or message me and I'll write them in.

I'm also bringing back the old Third Street Authors forum too, so we can all help each other out in bringing the most attention to our stories. Hope you enjoy!

Set after 'Welcome Back'


Johnny strode through to the Bridge of the ship, his hands scratching relentlessly at the itchy jumpsuit he was forced to wear, and his eyebrows rising at what he saw throughout the windows; the Earth, or rather, it's fiery remains. Johnny sighed as he moved closer and pressed his arm across the window to look further down, hoping to find even a remaining chunk of the planet, but was disappointed at the reality. Johnny's hobby had always been murdering any asshole that got into his way, but with the human race almost extinguished, Zinyak stole the very reason Johnny would get out of bed every morning.

As Johnny started to retreat backwards, Keith entered the Bridge, and was astounded at what seemed like human compassion in the longest-running Saint. Keith always had mixed feelings when it came to Johnny; was he just an unfocused killing machine that the Boss would always favour as his right hand, or did he hold loyalty to his friends, if he even had any? First impressions are always important, and Keith was about to put this to the test.

'It isn't easy is it? Realising everything you've cared about is gone?' Keith queried, Gat was too mesmerised by the Earth's remains to respond to him directly. Keith's lips began to pout slightly further.

'Y'know, when my kill count got to 1000, I thought nobody could top that. But when there isn't anything to add to keep boosting it, it kinda gives you a little perspective.' Johnny observed, Keith couldn't help but let out a chuckle.

'Perspective? Sounds like you're just jealous that Zinyak wiped out the entire human race before you had the chance to.' Keith sneered, now he had gained Johnny's full attention as he turned to face the celebrity, but not for the right reasons.

'Yeah? You sound like an old washed out bitch that had his jaw blown off for spouting shit – You wanna end up just like him?' Johnny roared, he was inches away from Keith's face as he squared up to him, and Keith's patience finally ran out, just as Kinzie entered the Bridge unheard.

'For the last motherfucking time – I am nothing like Julius! The main difference? I'm still breathing, and I'm not going to let a trigger-happy nut like you say shi-'

'Guys!' Kinzie shrieked and interrupted, the two men flinched when they heard her young wailing, and glimpsed at each other to signal a mutual end to their argument to save face. 'Johnny, the Boss wants your help in the simulation, apparently something's come up'.

'And if there's one thing you can rely on a killing machine to do, it's to kill anything that gets in his way, even in a Goddamn daydream…' Keith muttered, fortunately Gat had already left the bridge with Kinzie before he could hear Keith's final remark. As Johnny headed for the simulation pods, he noticed Asha was following him, and it didn't take long to realise the Boss had also called her in for assistance too.

'So if you're one of the first the Boss calls for help against the Zin, that means you must be good at what you do.' Johnny noted in a bewildering state, he struggled to find a starting point for getting to know Asha, who had always been an outsider to the group, even before Johnny returned.

''Good' doesn't even give sufficient credit to my skillset. When a crisis arises, I am always the solution to the problem, no matter the conflicting issues.' Asha affirmed, she had marched past Johnny up the stairs as she didn't care for wasting time on conversing when the Boss was in trouble, and Johnny was taken aback at how emotionless she took to murder.

'Okay…That settles that then.' Johnny concluded, he finished walking up the stairs and entered the room with the simulation pods, where he was greeted by the friendlier Matt, and was still unsure what to think about the Boss forgiving an enemy gang boss that tried to kill him personally.

'The Boss wasn't exactly forthcoming with the details, but judging by his tone and the lack of information, I'd say it's pretty bad. Good luck.' Matt informed whilst helping Johnny and Asha into the simulation pods, Asha firmly nodded at Matt's words whilst Johnny restlessly looked back and forth at everything that was happening, uncomfortable with being trapped into another pod. He didn't have a chance to argue however; as Matt closed the lid and Johnny began to drift away in unconsciousness.

The Boss crouched himself behind one of the slot machines within the Three Count Casino, waiting anxiously for his superpowers to recharge as he fired a submachine gun frantically without looking across the corner, however the sounds of footsteps and the sizzling of fire grew closer and closer. Just as the Boss's hope seemingly ran out, Johnny and Asha materialised in front of him, and quickly loaded up their rifles upon noticing the blood stains on the Boss's simsuit.

'Brace yourselves you two, Zinyak's pissed over letting us rescue Johnny, so he's trying to hit me where it hurts…Psychologically. Gat, you're not going to like this one bit.'

'It doesn't matter how many of them there are, we'll get it done.' Asha assured, she waved her hands as she raced her frosty cytokinesis in her veins, and revealed herself to her opponent. Astonishingly however, it was just one young man albeit with superpowers, dressed in a ripped tank top and with bloody baggy tracksuit bottoms. 'Wait, this is what's giving you trouble? He's just a kid!'

'I'm stronger than I look!' Carlos furiously snared, he fired a ray of fire towards the MI6 Agent, who defended herself by shooting her own freeze powers to rival Carlos. Johnny helped the Boss up as the two Saints marvelled at the display of fire vs ice.

'Carlos always did like trying to show whose boss…' Johnny muttered, he began firing from his assault rifle whilst the Boss arose and assessed the threat Carlos posed. Apart of him wanted to kill his fallen friend to protect Johnny and Asha, whilst the other half impatiently waited for Kinzie to turn Carlos into an ally again. Time was not on his side, as he had to make a decision.

'Nah, he just wanted to boost his confidence, but that was my job, not his. Give me cover so I can move in and take him down; I don't want anyone else near him.' The Boss insisted, he had switched to his stomping power and loaded up a Grave Digger with explosive ammo, but Asha however struggled to overhear their planning, as she was intent on getting the job done.

The beams of fire and ice collided within the centre of the casino, and as Carlos pushed further forward with all of his might, Johnny did his best to assist in the fight even without his superpowers as he aimed for Carlos' skull. Carlos began to wither in agony as he retreated from his battle with Asha, and aimed to protect himself by spreading fire across the ground he stood on. He began callously shouting for the Boss to reveal himself, wanting explanations for what happened after his death, however wasn't quick enough to spot his former leader sneaking behind him, preparing to use his telekinesis.

'Carlos, the sooner this is over, the easier this'll be for the rest of us…' The Boss protested, he used his telekinesis to wave Carlos into the air like a puppet, and Johnny and Asha watched as he struggled to break free.

'Easier for who? You promised to make a banger out of me, but you left me to die! You think, this will hold me?' Carlos questioned with ferocity, he began to scream with agitation and broke free with his blazing body of fire, then switched to his stomping power to immobilise Johnny and Asha, whilst the Boss looked on, charging up his freezing powers.

'Listen to me Carlos; this isn't real! You're just a simulation being controlled by Zinyak! We can help you, make sure he pays for all this bullshit!' The Boss pleaded, he tried a different approach as he held his arms in the air to signal surrender, and Carlos simply glared at him, amazed at how easy it was for the Boss to swallow his pride when his friends were in danger. This wasn't what angered Carlos however, and eventually, the Boss would discover his grave mistake.

'How can you say you'll make Zinyak pay, when you didn't even make all of the Brotherhood pay?' Carlos berated, just as the Boss believed he had reached an impasse, Carlos activated his own telekinesis, entrapped the Boss, and made way with his former leader, whilst the other two Saints were simply baffled at Carlos' words. Johnny arose and began firing his rifle at Carlos, who gradually became a fading figure into the distance outside the Casino.

'What was all that about the 'Brotherhood'? I thought I learnt the Boss had properly avenged Carlos, didn't he?' Asha enquired, her knowledge of the Saints' previous battles was weak as she had only heard a summary from Pierce and Keith regarding her employers' past, but just before Johnny could explain, an omniscient paranormal voice spoke down to the Saints.

'Yes yes, the President with all of his morale and spirit took the battle to the leather-clad and impoverished truck-drivers, but he wasn't a man of his word!' Zinyak scoffed, Johnny's eyebrows clenched as soon as he heard his obnoxious voice speaking down to them from the sky, and Asha reloaded her rifle, foreseeing another fight. 'Your leader was as gullible and arrogant as he is today, and he never even bothered to question whom exactly played a role in Carlos' demise…'

'If he's gullible and arrogant than you, what does that make you? You've had dozens of chances to kill us, but you insist in keeping us in this virtual prison; the Saints tend to break out of prisons, one way or another…' Johnny flared, in all of his rage, he had highlighted the flaws in Zinyak's plans, and as Asha gritted her teeth at the hotheaded Saint begging for trouble, hordes of Brotherhood thugs entered the casinos, wielding shotguns and light machine guns.

'Focus Gat – We have to rescue your Boss before Carlos kills him, now do what you do best and annihilate all these pawns!' Asha ordered, the hostility between the two increased as Johnny only ever allowed two people to order him around, and one of them had their jaw blown off. Johnny leapt into the crowd of thugs with two knives hidden under his knuckles, and smirked as the blood poured onto the slot machines and his own face. Asha wasn't amused at his bloodlust.

'Is that all I am to you? A killing machine? Fuck it, I'm getting bored of this, let's just find the Boss…' Johnny sighed; he was unleashing his frustration onto the Brotherhood by cracking their necks with his bloody paws and slashing their throats with his knives, and as Asha picked for headshots behind him, he was growing very uncomfortable around the new company he found himself in.

….

The Boss awakened in an aching daze, his eyes whimpering at the lustre of the many suppression grenades across the wooden table in front of him, and found himself tied to a chair seemingly alone in the darkness to mull over Carlos' words. He saw a small window towards the end of the corridor that was almost completely covered with dust, and the blinds that attempted to hide it flew back and forth with a racket. Before the Boss could analyse his surroundings any further, a familiar voice called out behind him.

'It was on a night like this that you lost me…That you left me.' Carlos whined, the Boss could hear his footsteps behind him growing nearer as the wind grew stronger. 'You promised to make a banger out of me, but you didn't give me the chance.'

'I don't need to say shit; if the real Carlos was still alive right now, he wouldn't be blaming me for your death. He'd be thanking me for watching that bitch Jessica get squished, and putting a bullet in Maero's big skull.' The Boss affirmed, he began shaking his head restlessly whilst sighing, waiting for an opportunity to escape.

'Like me!?' Carlos roared, he revealed himself to the Boss as he jumped in front of the suppression grenades, his entire face and body appearing more intimidating by the blocking of the light. The Boss jumped with franticness as he saw that there was a gigantic hole in Carlos's face now with crimson rivers of blood and tissue looming across his face, just like his corpse. Zinyak was going to pay for this. The Boss gathered himself back together.

'What's done is done, if I could go back and save you, I would, but if there is one thing I did right by you, it was avenging you. Maero's dead – Jessica's dead – The whole fucking Brotherhood is dead!' The Boss snapped, Carlos began circling around the Boss as his simulated face regrew it's bone composition and skin, and he drew out a Quickshot pistol.

'The 'whole' Brotherhood? You never even figured out how I even got kidnapped by the Brotherhood!' Carlos protested, the Boss's eyes widened as he skimmed his eyes across the room for a brief moment, finally asking himself the pertinent question. 'I may not be much of a banger, but I know how to handle myself; they didn't just kidnap me, they knew where I was and hunted me down. That couldn't have happened at all…Well, unless…'

'Unless someone ratted you out. That's what you're getting at.' The Boss finished, Carlos sarcastically clapped his hands as he pretended to prance around him. 'No one in the Saints back then was a snitch. Johnny, Pierce and Shaundi, they had your back. None of them ratted you out. Johnny and I checked all the guys, they had our backs man. For fuck sake, I had your back.'

'Is that…Is that what you think this is all about?' Carlos bewildered, his tone shifted into surprise as the Boss's eyebrows clenched in confusion. 'Boss, I forgive you for not saving me in time, it wasn't your job to watch over me. But why….Why on God's earth…' Carlos pleaded in a saddening tone, then his aggression resurfaced as he kicked the door of a closet next to him, and revealed a familiar face to the Boss, also bound and tied to a chair. 'IS HE STILL ALIVE?'

Donnie's lips slackened with amazement and allowed gushes of blood to spill out of his broken jaw, and spat out a few loose teeth before restraining himself incase he began to vomit again. His eyes awakened with agony and curiosity as he whimpered slightly for help from the Boss, then strangely began chuckling, almost manically. The Boss remembered that this was all the doing of Zinyak, and knew that the real Donnie would never act like the simulated puppet before him.

'Gotta give him points; he came back from the dead to make all this happen! So, how's this going to go down? Can I be tied to the back of the van this time, or is that just your thing now?' Donnie snorted, he bounced upwards with the chair still tied to him to reveal himself from the inside of the closet, and carelessly spat blood onto Carlos's sneakers. The Boss sat unfazed, firmly a disbeliever of the lies in front of him. Carlos retorted by smacking Donnie in the face with the butt of the pistol, then as the young mechanic fell to the ground, Carlos pinned the pistol firmly atop his skull.

'You just sit there and be quiet, or I'll put a full round into your lap first.' Carlos barked, he took the pistol off safety, then spat into Donnie's eyes with contempt, whilst the Boss moved to turn his chair, and face the two directly, now that they had gained his attention.

'This is getting boring now Zinyak! I'm not buying any of this!' The Boss resounded, Carlos and Donnie looked at him confusingly as he shouted towards the ceiling, then as the room felt silent with nothing but the creaks of the floorboards and crawling of the spiders, the Boss admitted defeat to his boredom.

'If it had been you he ratted out and helped hunt down…I'd…I'd have done nothing other than search across this entire world for this pathetic cowardly backstabbing bitch! And send him off to hell!' Carlos cried, he aimed the pistol at the Boss, hoping for more of a fearful reaction from the Boss who still sat, not even bothering to blink or to even attempt to interrupt Carlos to explain himself.

'This isn't about Donnie…It wasn't about anyone. All you would have wanted was for Jessica to die, Maero to die and for the whole Brotherhood to fall. Even if he had helped hunt you down, it wouldn't have mattered; he's a coward who'll do whatever he can to get by. He was never loyal to one side, and he never will be. Killing him wouldn't have helped take down the Brotherhood. It was never a choice.' The Boss revealed, as he began to finally justify his actions and as Zinyak grew more distracted with his imploring, the Boss managed to unravel himself from the bounds of the chair, and stood up to face Carlos.

'Well…Now you do have a choice.' Carlos concluded, he untied Donnie from his chair and wrapped his arms around the mechanic's neck, then tossed the Quickshot pistol to the Boss, who allowed it to fall into the open palms of his hands. 'Zinyak's created me with a signal blocker inside my files, meaning your friends won't find you…This is just down to us. If you want to escape out of here, you're going to have to kill me! But…If you want to make things right…You have to kill him.'

'You're right about one thing Carlos…I do have a choice.' The Boss announced, he felt every inch of the pistol across the curves of the cold metal, then chose to turn around abruptly and shot a bullet through the window in front of him, smashing the glass and offering him a potential escape route. He then fired another round through the window and into the sky to signal his friends where he was. 'You never expected me to think outside the box, huh Zinyak?'

'Well I suppose I will remember you most of all for your unpredictability as well as your arrogance. Like Mr Collins from Pride and Prejudice, you foolishly chance every opportunity before you without thinking them through…However I am the master of this world, and I will not tolerate your arrogance no longer.' Zinyak snidely warned, Carlos and Donnie both looked to the ceiling in fright at the omniscient marauder voice, and the Boss looked towards the darkened corners of the apartment as he saw Murderbots, Zin and CIDs generate out of thin air and swarm the Boss.

'Well shit…Guess there really is only one option now…' The Boss moaned, he held the Quickshot pistol firmly in front of him and contemplated shooting either Donnie or Carlos, however confidently winked at the two with a sarcastic smirk whilst walking backwards, and then performed a backflip out of the window.

'NO! You can't run away anymore!' Carlos cried with haste, he threw Donnie away onto the floor and hurried to the window, and wavered his arms out in an attempt to grab the Boss, both to rescue him from his death as well as to subject him for further torment. Amazingly however, someone else robbed him of the chance.

'Asha! You sneaky MI6 agent you!' The Boss juvenilely cheered, Asha had glided from across Downtown Steelport and grabbed him in mid-air with a brazened expression on her face, and began to set him down by the bridge in the Park of Loren Square in the Downtown district, whilst Johnny followed them in a Saints Vulture helicopter.

'I've never been one to blindly follow you in your strange insticts; besides, this is child's play for me.' Asha proudly affirmed, she allowed the Boss to drop onto the ground of the bridge as he dusted himself off whilst the neon-blue glow around her faded, and Johnny still hovered in his Vulture above the park, however he wasn't the only one following the Boss, as Carlos leapt from building to building and telekinetically threw Johnny's helicopter into the grassy terrain below.

'Shit…It's been half a decade since I put a bullet in his face, but it feels just like yesterday…I have to do it again; it has to be me, I don't want anyone else to go through this shit. He's…He's just a kid.' The Boss moaned, almost tearfully as he flexed his arms and readied his buff ability, whilst Asha looked on towards the darkened figure of Carlos walking further down the bridge, the fiery inferno of the helicopter behind him, with Johnny limbering out to give chase.

'You don't have to deal with the burden anymore; let us in Boss…Let me in.' Asha pleaded, she grew closer to the Boss as he drew his head downwards and gave her a sideway glance of consideration, whilst Johnny straightened himself up and aimed his Shokolov AR rifle at the tip of Carlos's head, the latter still unfazed at any of his former allies and mumbling nonsense to himself.

'NO!' The Boss snapped, if he was to be a true leader, he could not allow those he led to feel his pain, and switched to his freezing abilities and fired a blast towards Carlos, immobilising him where he stood. Asha looked back and forth between the three men before her, wondering who would make the kill first. Johnny was holstering the rifle violently though showed no hesitation in his face, the Boss brought out his cold merciless pistol and aimed it closely at Carlos's forehead, and the two Saints readied themselves for another sickening memory…

BAAM!

Carlos's body fell majestically yet unwantedly to the littered pavement below him, the Boss rushing to hold him as the ice broke free, and Johnny stood in the foreground, lowering his rifle, amazed at what had just happened. Asha drew her 45 Shepherd close and blew the smoke away from the tip of her trusty weapon, then hid it away without fear nor pleasure, showing no pain in her decision. Johnny jogged slightly as he went to help comfort his friend, trying to get his head around what had happened; he hesitated. He had the chance to kill another person yet again, but hesitated. Was this fear, or a breakthrough in his psychosis?

'Even if this isn't the real you, there is something I have to say to you…Something I've never said to you before and never said to anyone…Thank you, for being like a younger brother to me.' The Boss mournfully wept, he held Carlos's head with his right hand and wrapped his other hand in Carlos's left fist, cementing their brotherly bond one final time. Asha stood behind him, silent and unwilling to disrupt his closure.

'I-I never had an older brother….I lied. I lied because I wanted to feel like I was already in the Saints, like I was already family. You were always a brother to me, Boss.' Carlos whimpered, his eyes were opening and shutting abruptly whilst showing what the Boss saw as tears. Before the Boss could keep his old friend with him any longer, Carlos began to disintegrate into thin air, and his pixels faded away; one of the Boss's friends died again, and another who was once believed to have died returned to him.

'It's…It's done.' Johnny sighed, he holstered his rifle onto his shoulders whilst the Boss rose up from the ground, and Asha gave the two a reassuring smile. 'One thing's for sure, Zinyak's gonna pay for this shit.'

'I'm going to tear his goddamn head off and put it on the walls of the fucking ship…Let's find one of the gateways, I want to get out of here.' The Boss concluded, Johnny and Asha nodded in agreement at his words as he jumped with ferocity into the air and began searching Steelport for a gateway out of the simulation. As Asha prepared to do the same, Johnny grabbed her by her arm, wanting to beg a pertinent question.

'Hey, before you go, I gotta know…Why did you fire first? I could have killed him.' Johnny affirmed, he felt emotionally weak but could not let anyone like Asha know that, and needed assurance that she knew who exactly was the team badass.

'Sometimes taking down a target isn't a case of settling a personal vendetta or telling yourself in a delusional state that you'll be saving countless lives doing so…You just do it to protect those you care about. You waste your bullet to safeguard your friend's bullet. That's my priority.' Asha revealed, finally, she was letting her guard down, and even though she felt Matt may have been listening in on them or that it was a pointless revelation to the apparent killing machine, it was necessary. She needed to become a part of the Saints, properly. Asha nodded her head positively and leapt to search for a gateway. Johnny gazed at the skyline, wondering if he had found a new lease in life.

One hour later

Johnny wandered through to the Bridge of the ship, his hardened fists following him almost reluctantly, and his eyebrows remaining still and clenched at the events that he was forced to endure. When he finally rose his head to face what was in front of him, he was amazed to find Keith before him, offering him a handshake as well as a stern yet apologetic look on his face. Johnny smiled almost gleefully and shook it, and before he began speaking to apologise for his behaviour to Keith before he ventured into the simulation, Keith shushed him and pointed to the case of beer on the desktops in front of the main window of the bridge, and the two shared a quick glance; they both knew what they had done wrong and wanted to make amends, and Keith no longer saw Johnny as the emotionless deranged killer like before.

Johnny joined Keith on the desk-chairs as they screwed off the tops of the bottles, offered each other a toast and clashed their bottles, then eagerly took a swig as they looked out at the still fiery inferno of their former home. They were both very depressed and considering suicide for the lack of humanity now, but what kept them alive was the thirst for vengeance.

Asha strode into the room and observed the two; satisfied in knowing Keith listened to her previously when she scolded him for his arrogance at Johnny and revealing the true reason why he couldn't kill Carlos, and for Johnny being able to return to his role of a teamplayer for the Saints, she quickly left the Bridge.

She hovered over the stairway and watched Matt return to the hangar of the ship with a PSP in his hands, and contemplated following him to get to know him better, but allowed her own hesitation to get the better of her, and returned to the gym. She returned to doing what she had always done; train. Train, for the inevitable clash with Zinyak.


Phew, that took forever to write! Well don't worry, the next chapters won't focus so much on description and long paragraphs of detail; from now on, all of these stories will be in the free direct speech and will just be flows after flows of dialogue from our favourite Saints. Chapter Two will be up soon, please leave a review below to let me know how I did or can improve, and also whether you've enjoyed this or not!